


Tattoos

by chasing_the_sterek



Series: Coffee-Induced Ramblings Of A Modern-Day Da Vinci [1]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: F/M, Howard Stark's A+ Parenting, Howard Stark's Bad Parenting, M/M, Tattooed Tony, This has been moved over from my ff.net account, Tony Has Tattoos, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Tony has tattoos but he totally hides them, and b, and they're cleverly placed anyway, but a, he had Jarvis and Maria so, honestly, honestly who do you think he is - clint?, i would be surprised Tony's such a nice guy, more like, sometimes he isn't
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-03
Updated: 2015-12-03
Packaged: 2018-05-04 19:43:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 899
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5346272
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chasing_the_sterek/pseuds/chasing_the_sterek
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony has tattoos, and yeah, he's hidden them from the world from the day he got his first drop of ink, but it's more fun that way - especially considering the new additions to his usually-practically-deserted tower.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tattoos

**Author's Note:**

> This is copied from my ff.net account, where my name was (is) nightfury150. Don't give yourself a heart attack please - I've not stolen this!!! D:
> 
> Avengers doesn't belong to me. It belongs to Marvel, obviously.
> 
> Enjoy! :D
> 
>  
> 
> UPDATE: Yeah, I made this a one-shot and the Coffee-Induced Ramblings Of A Modern-Day Da Vinci a series. Sorry for any inconveniences, but it should be okay, right? Uh. . .

He only has a couple. A handful, really.

There's a small red dragon blowing golden fire on his back. There's a feather behind his ear. There's an arc-reactor-blue Avengers' 'A' (he's not sure if he regrets that one or not) on the heel of his foot. There's a thin-lined, empty circle on his hip.

The tattoos are simple and small, and they all mean something.

The dragon reminds Tony of both his pre Iron Man and post Iron Man selves. In Chinese symbolism, the dragon stands for emperor: this is his pre Iron Man self - an emperor, full of self-importance and cocky and seeing himself as royalty (not that he saw it that way at the time). In other cultures it symbolises wisdom, courage, and strength: this is his post Iron Man self, if Tony can get away with saying that without sounding narcissistic. The fire shows Iron Man's determination and Tony Stark the weapons manufacturer's firepower.

The feather shows Tony's love for flying and his respect for the air. In ancient times the feather was used to appease the sky gods (sue him if he didn't want to be thrown out of the sky by an angry god at any point - and, after Thor and Loki, he wouldn't put it past the universe to throw some random sky god into his life). In Christianity it stands for virtue, which just adds a hilarious irony to the whole thing.

The Avengers' 'A' has a few different meanings. One is obvious - it's their ilogo/i, for the love of everything valuable, and one less so. There's a reason why he chose to have it blue, not red, and that reason is that the tattoo symbolises the Avengers' complete acceptance of Tony, warts and arc reactor and workshop binges and all. Sometimes it displays the friendship and family-like dynamic he has with the team.

The empty circle has the most meanings. It shows the world, the arc reactor, the circle of life (no singing, lions), a friendship bracelet, a lightbulb, Captain America's shield. . . give Tony a packet of felt tips and he can make anything out of it - from simple smiley faces to mind-bogglingly complicated friendship bracelets that took him over two hours and a headache to draw half of. The circle is there as a reminder to not just rely on logic all the time. The circle is there to show how things inevitably get better.

All of them have a story behind them, and Tony knows the stories off by heart.

He's 99.9999999999999% positive that the media don't know about them - and, because he is a person who actually doesn't like heavy media coverage, he keeps them well hidden.

The dragon and the circle are covered up by clothing. The 'A' is usually either being stood on or has a sock on it. The feather is hidden by his long(ish - look at Thor's!) hair.

Whenever he considers showing one some part of his head says no. He doesn't know what he's waiting for, really.

Tony got the tattoos at different times, different years, even, so he's fairly used to covering them up.

The circle was first. It was a couple of years before Afghanistan, and he was about to inherit SI.

The dragon was next. The colouring of the dragon itself and its fire was finished a couple of days before he held the demonstration of the Jericho missile.

The feather came after that, a few days after he'd finished building Mark V of the suit. A celebration, and a good luck charm, of sorts.

The 'A' was last, some time after the Battle of New York, and just after the Avengers had all been moved in for three weeks.

The tattoos weren't on his file. He didn't think SHIELD were even aware they existed. Sometimes Tony wondered where the short list of his tattoos would go - under "Personal Attributes", next to the note on his workshop binges? "Appearance", next to the note on how devilishly handsome he was? "Special Features", next to the note on his arc reactor? He'd have to ask Natasha, Clint, Coulson, Fury, Hill, or some other SHIELD employee if he wanted to know, and that would mean they knew about the tattoos.

Which, Tony decides, takes all of the fun out of hiding them.

Perhaps that's why he doesn't show the tattoos - because he gets a kick out of people being about two seconds away from spotting one of them.

The billionaire smiles softly at the mirror he's been standing in front of for twenty minutes straight without noticing - too wrapped up in his own thoughts to even look at himself more than once - and watches the circle move with his skin as he twists from side to side.

Footsteps start to enter earshot, and Tony fumbles with his top, pulling it over his head just in time for Steve to poke his head in.

The supersoldier informs him that The Dark Knight is starting and Tony informs him in turn that he'll be there in a minute. As soon as Steve leaves (sighing all the way), Tony lifts his tattooed foot off the floor and grins at the 'A' that's marked there. The blue seems to glow brighter in return, and the engineer's grin grows wider.

He puts his foot back on the floor and goes to join the other Avengers.

**Author's Note:**

> Woah, you stuck with it. What a trooper. Congrats. Bet your eyes are burning.
> 
> This was a pain to upload. It deleted the whole of itself bar the words 'the' 'Dark' and 'foot', so I had to delete the thing and put it in again. This happened a lot of times until I finally realised I wasn't doing it properly. I don't know exactly _how_ you muck up simple copy-and-pasting, but I did, and it was a freaking pain in the ass.
> 
> People requested a people-find-out set of fics, and the tattoo-finding HAS OFFICIALLY BEGUN! If you're interested, just click on the link for my series _Splashes Of Ink_
> 
>  
> 
> By the way, [this is my tumblr if you want it.](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/total-master-of-geekiness)


End file.
